A news crew reports on the abduction of Denise Huskins in front of the home she was taken from in Vallejo, Calif., Wednesday, March 25, 2015. Police in the San Francisco Bay Area say they're treating the case of a missing woman who reappeared in Southern California as a kidnapping-for-ransom until evidence points them in another direction.

A person claiming to be the ringleader of a group that says it abducted a California woman last week in an attempt to get a ransom has backed away from a threat to police to apologize for calling it a hoax.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1Hj6wWL ) that attorneys for the 29-year-old Vallejo woman and her boyfriend received emails from the purported ringleader saying the group's ultimatum to cause further harm was wrong and it won't attempt further damage.

The newspaper previously reported an email it received from the anonymous person threatened police and demand they apologize to Denise Huskins.

Huskins' boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, reported on March 23 that kidnappers took her and demanded an $8,500 ransom. She turned up safe two days later.

Police initially investigated the case as a kidnapping but later called it a hoax. They have since declined to comment.